CompleteMartialArts.com - Conan the Barbarian - Collector's Edition
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List Price: $12.98
Our Price: $11.49
Your Save: $ 1.49 ( 11% )
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Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Starring: Luis Barboo, Sandahl Bergman, Franco Columbu, Ben Davidson, Leslie Foldvary
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Universal
EAN: 9780783241890
Format: Anamorphic
ISBN: 0783241895
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2000-05-30
Running Time: 129
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1982-05-14
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Editorial Reviews:
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When his parents are savagely murdered conan is captured as a child and after fifteen years of agony forges a magnificent body and indomitable spirit. Once free he embarks upon a quest for ultimate power to slay the evil arch-villain that enslaved him. Features: special effects and much more. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 07/24/2007 Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger James Earl Jones Run time: 130 minutes Rating: R Director: John Millus
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite B-movie actioners
Comment: B-movie perfection. Milius knows his material and doesn't try to make do anything it can't. Conan isn't deep, doesn't brood over the meaning of life, he only wants vengeance on his parents murderer, his own enslaver and anyone who gets in the way of either.
Max von Sydow makes a hilarious cameo as King Osric whose wayward daughter has taken up with cult leader played to the hilt by James Earl Jones (I've often wondered, given the relative proximity in time to the Jonestown mass-murder, if it had any influence on Thulsa Doom's cult).
The best line of the movie, illustrating Milius & Stone's approach, is heard when Conan and his crew are seeking info about Doom's temple and are told, "Two, three years ago they were just another snake cult...now...they're everywhere!" Which could serve as the synopsis.
Sadly, the movie's relatively light-hearted tone is not reflected in the short-life of Conan's creator, Robert E. Howard.
He would commit suicide at the age of thirty. Unmarried and childless, he was the sole support of an ailing mother. With his writing career floundering, despair overwhelmed him and he took his life--unaware that he'd given an impetus to the heroic quest genre (as opposed to the epic quest genre as exemplified by Tolkein) that has lasted to this day.
L. Sprague De Camp would later take up Howard's characters and flesh out the world Howard had barely begun to create, writing many short stories and novels about Conan and Howard's other characters (e.g. Red Sonja).
Note: even had he been successful, pulp writers in the 30s, 40s & 50s barely made starvation wages*, typical pay-rates being pennies per word with book deals hardly dreamt of. This is probably the reason a talentless hack invented a religion after a $20 bet over a poker game. Needless to say he made a lot more money separating fools from their money with his spurious non-sense.
*And I mean this literally: one now-famed scribe having to trap & roast pigeons over candles in order to stave off starvation, unfortunately I can't remember his name.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Should have been more
Comment: I have always been a big fan of Robert E. Howard's Conan series (I have them all), and have had a VCR copy of "Conan the Barbarian" since first seeing it in the theatres in 1982. I was disappointed in the only attempted "sequel" ( "Conan the Destroyer"), and have always been even more disappointed that other attempts haven't been made to tell more of Howard's imaginative Conan series....especially in the age of CGI movies, which would seem to create endless possibilities in translating more of the Conan saga to the big screen. When I first saw the original "Conan" in 1982, I thought that there must have been a lot of film that wound up on the editing room floor: the movie clearly had a rich atmosphere, and Arnold was and always will be the perfect embodiment of Howard's fictional hero- but the movie also had a very choppy effect to it, as if many scenes were trimmed to get the thing down to a suitable running time.
So, I recently bought this Collector's Edition, in the hopes that I'd see the expanded movie the original should have been.
But I was disappointed again: the additional material largely is just a short speech by Conan in the last 10 minutes of the movie- otherwise much the same as the original. The other extras on the DVD are OK, but I was hoping for more in the film itself- so for those of you who are looking for a more "fleshed-out" Conan (no pun intended), I think you'll also be disappointed with the Collector's Edition.
Howard's epic series may be permanently doomed, for me anyway- as even if further Conan tales are brought to the big screen, I'm afraid that no one will ever be able to replace Arnold as The Main Man.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended for fans of the Sword & Sorcery movies!
Comment: "Conan the Barbarian" is full of violence, blood, gore, sex, nudity, and substance abuse. Being a father of 3, that makes this movie one of my biggest guilty pleasures!
Several observations:
* James Earl Jones is fantastic as the understatedly evil Falsa Doom
* "Arni" is the perfect Conan...buff, brusk, and focused
* The cinematography is just outstanding
* Great music score
* Not for kids (for reasons listed above)
This is a very good action movie and is highly recommended for fans of the Sword & Sorcery genre.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Made my husband very happy when he got this
Comment: My husband has been looking for this movie at the video stores around town & no one had it so I ordered it from Amazon - he was so surprised & excited.
Customer Rating:
Summary: dated but satisfying
Comment: It has loads of blood & dismemberment & some softcore sex (how could someone make such a movie and get elected governor?;) I guess we're just lucky "W" wasn't a weightlifter) But it's the story of Conan and this is what Conan does if you've read any of the books or comic books (and Arnold looks like he's straight out of a comic book). Arnold did fine w/the dialogue he was given, which is pretty sparse. It's definitely heavy on the action side. It's a very simple story, but action keeps it moving, although it might be a little slow for today's standards. I wish the dvd consistently looked better, but it doesn't and b/c of that it looks a bit dated. And btw the dvd is very basic. It's a movie/character that begs to be remade (especially since the sequels grew more ridiculous, Wilt Chamberlain, really?), but which is pretty good for what it is.
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